When there is a collision with a pedestrian, a cyclist or a motor cyclist, the magnitude of the impact is not very great, but there is an absolute need to protect as much as possible the physical integrity and life of the pedestrian or (motor) cyclist.
Then, in order of magnitude, the known examples of incidents range from impacts in an urban environment to extremely violent impacts known as a “crash” by specialists, in which the life of the passengers of the vehicles must be protected and if possible they must be prevented from receiving any injury consequent upon this impact or at least the severity thereof must be minimized.
Over the last few years, car manufacturers have been led to develop various solutions to respond to these safety constraints, but without being able to find entirely satisfactory solutions. In fact, the technological solutions developed for safety respond first and foremost to scenarios involving frontal impacts, i.e. which are produced so that the forces and stresses are exerted along an axis which is the main axis of the vehicle.
Thus various solutions intended to absorb the kinetic energy of the impact have been implemented on parts of the structure of the vehicles such as the side bar, the cradle, and even by adding to the structure of vehicles complementary means such as for example absorbers, cradle side bars, prolongations or extensions.
But hitherto, it has not been possible to find a satisfactory solution in the case of impacts in which the forces and stresses exerted on the structural elements of the vehicle are not directed along the main axis of the vehicle, which in the case of the impact consequently subjects certain structural elements or the abovementioned complementary means to forces which combine simultaneously forces and torques.
Moreover, the solutions realized hitherto do not make it possible to control and localize the point(s) of absorption of the kinetic energy entirely satisfactorily, nor to be in a position to absorb widely varying levels of energy according to the impact scenarios, nor to control and select the point(s) of localization of deformation undergone by these structural elements or these complementary means.